In 1869, the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev published the first widely recognized periodic table of elements. The periodic table indicates the elements in order of atomic number (the number of protons).
It was the result of analysing and grouping properties of these chemical elements. In fact, it has been applied to predict properties of elements later discovered.
Tom Lehrer, among his other humorous achievements, composed a song of the periodic table to the melody of Arthur Sullivan’s aria “I am the very model of a modern major general” from Pirates of Penzance (original lyrics by W.S. Gilbert).
Recent remarks by the serving POTUS regarding small Asian states and big atomic weapons have led many among the chattering classes — especially the compatibles or faux gauche who dominate much of what counts as opposition discourse in the English-language/US-based portion of the Web — to engage in a favourite CIA pastime; namely, remote psychoanalysis. The “fire and fury” threats — badly plagiarised Macbeth if truth be told — are viewed as yet another proof that the famously democratic US electoral system has produced an office-holder whose insanity ostensibly surpasses any other in recorded history.
Perhaps it would be useful to consider this proposition — the insanity of Mr Trump — in a more scientific manner, especially since Professor Dr. Freud never claimed psychoanalysis was a science, and psychiatry’s claim to be more than an adjunct to the…